Pontoon boats taking over

**Jeff Day** · 09-05-2018, 03:56 PM

I'm glad I'm not the only one.. wake boats were all over last weekend..had the water so rough you could barely relax .Tooners,jet skiers and wake boats ruined weekend boating. I enjoy the water through the week far more than on the weekends.

**Tcatrett** · 09-05-2018, 04:04 PM

Same problems down here. We try to ride on Friday afternoon or late sunday. Saturdays and holidays are horrible. Got me a big boat now for when I want to join them.

**Mrzip** · 09-05-2018, 04:15 PM

Tri toons with the big 4stroke are the future. You want be able to give a 19'to 25' IO away. They get up & run good handle well sip fuel. No winterazition. It's the best way to go. 2 Hell with surf boat

**boaterok** · 09-05-2018, 07:09 PM

forgot to mention the guy in the cruiser pulling a tube toy at max wake. He went over well with the guys with DCB, MTI Eliminators and my 1940 Chris Craft in between.

Originally Posted by boaterok

Well I am 64 and been boating 59 years. Learned to barefoot behind a 58 Lonestar with a 50Evinrude Mark IV at 13. And we litterally boated Fri Sat Sun every weekend from April to Oct and spent a week of each month of the summer camped out. And my dad use to boat down all the marinas so we could look at the boats. Now days I have 3 wood boats, cc Mako fishing boat and a Hydrostream Venom with 300xs and I hate both toons and wakeboard boats. I hate toons because they have no charachter cant tell one from the other it could be 10 years old. And like I told the Lake Patrol the other day if I were a sniper I would blow the speakers or motor out of a wakeboard boat. I am so tired of the blasting of stereos at midnight and during the day while hanging out at the beach. But then again thats just me.

**JPEROG** · 09-06-2018, 11:49 AM

Originally Posted by boaterok

Well I am 64 and been boating 59 years. Learned to barefoot behind a 58 Lonestar with a 50Evinrude Mark IV at 13. And we litterally boated Fri Sat Sun every weekend from April to Oct and spent a week of each month of the summer camped out. And my dad use to boat down all the marinas so we could look at the boats. Now days I have 3 wood boats, cc Mako fishing boat and a Hydrostream Venom with 300xs and I hate both toons and wakeboard boats. I hate toons because they have no charachter cant tell one from the other it could be 10 years old. And like I told the Lake Patrol the other day if I were a sniper I would blow the speakers or motor out of a wakeboard boat. I am so tired of the blasting of stereos at midnight and during the day while hanging out at the beach. But then again thats just me.

Don't let yourself turn into the old guy that you used to hate...

Joe

**JPEROG** · 09-06-2018, 12:04 PM

If I was forced to have one boat, a tri-toon is a good compromise. The main core of performance boat guys are getting older "myself included", grand kids come into the picture, operation and maintenance cost become a bigger issue, wives become more demanding, and our need for "real speed" starts to dissipate. We will soon have the ability to make a tri-toon run in high 70's without much effort and it they will satisfy a major portion of the performance enthusiast market. So its only going to grow for the next 15 years if it remains within affordable reach (that might be the catch). The offshore market is dealing with the exact same transition but center consoles have become the new "catch all" in that segment.

There were almost as many center consoles at the Camden supercat fest as there were cats. The other thing fueling that transition is the fact that big (150+ mph) boats have proven to be deadly with the power combinations that are now easily accessible and guys are realizing that that a it takes more then a big checkbook to operate this stuff and stay alive.

The 100K+ wake boats that are selling like crazy (I can't fathom, understand or relate to at all) there is absolutely no courtesy involved with the large majority of them. Surfing is for the beach and they are really hard on other boaters as well the shoreline.

Joe

**mikesufka** · 09-06-2018, 12:49 PM

Originally Posted by JPEROG

If I was forced to have one boat, a tri-toon is a good compromise. The main core of performance boat guys are getting older "myself included", grand kids come into the picture, operation and maintenance cost become a bigger issue, wives become more demanding, and our need for "real speed" starts to dissipate. We will soon have the ability to make a tri-toon run in high 70's without much effort and it they will satisfy a major portion of the performance enthusiast market. So its only going to grow for the next 15 years if it remains within affordable reach (that might be the catch). The offshore market is dealing with the exact same transition but center consoles have become the new "catch all" in that segment.

There were almost as many center consoles at the Camden supercat fest as there were cats. The other thing fueling that transition is the fact that big (150+ mph) boats have proven to be deadly with the power combinations that are now easily accessible and guys are realizing that that a it takes more then a big checkbook to operate this stuff and stay alive.

The 100K+ wake boats that are selling like crazy (I can't fathom, understand or relate to at all) there is absolutely no courtesy involved with the large majority of them. Surfing is for the beach and they are really hard on other boaters as well the shoreline.

Joe

Totally agree with everything ...

MDS

**Rynobull** · 09-06-2018, 01:30 PM

Love my fast boats, but with a 4 month old and will most likely have another in a couple years, a tritoon that runs in the 60s seems like a good option for us for quite a few years. Could our old hydrostream Voyager worked? Yes, but just not as comfy! I may as well as get the tritoon and then get an stv or hydrostream for some thrills. You can get one hell of a nice smaller performance boat for 15k these days...

My 2 cents.

(Within 10 years, 500hp outboards will be powering toons that are more aerodynamic with more intricate toon designs and running 70+ all day long over most inland lake boat chop/snot/etc!)

**largecar91** · 09-06-2018, 02:21 PM

Originally Posted by Rynobull

Love my fast boats, but with a 4 month old and will most likely have another in a couple years, a tritoon that runs in the 60s seems like a good option for us for quite a few years. Could our old hydrostream Voyager worked? Yes, but just not as comfy! I may as well as get the tritoon and then get an stv or hydrostream for some thrills. You can get one hell of a nice smaller performance boat for 15k these days...

My 2 cents.

(Within 10 years, 500hp outboards will be powering toons that are more aerodynamic with more intricate toon designs and running 70+ all day long over most inland lake boat chop/snot/etc!)

I always said, the day I buy a pontoon is the day I die but now you can run 50-60 and seat 12 people and they have bars and fridges in them. What a concept

**Jeff Day** · 09-06-2018, 02:28 PM

Another thing that is driving the boat market.. most folks can't even keep a boat running unless it's under warranty. This doesn't apply to everyone of course, but to pay $20,000 more than what a pontoon is worth when looking at the sum of its parts..

**LakeFever** · 09-06-2018, 03:54 PM

Originally Posted by JPEROG

If I was forced to have one boat, a tri-toon is a good compromise. The main core of performance boat guys are getting older "myself included", grand kids come into the picture, operation and maintenance cost become a bigger issue, wives become more demanding, and our need for "real speed" starts to dissipate. We will soon have the ability to make a tri-toon run in high 70's without much effort and it they will satisfy a major portion of the performance enthusiast market. So its only going to grow for the next 15 years if it remains within affordable reach (that might be the catch). The offshore market is dealing with the exact same transition but center consoles have become the new "catch all" in that segment.

There were almost as many center consoles at the Camden supercat fest as there were cats. The other thing fueling that transition is the fact that big (150+ mph) boats have proven to be deadly with the power combinations that are now easily accessible and guys are realizing that that a it takes more then a big checkbook to operate this stuff and stay alive.

The 100K+ wake boats that are selling like crazy (I can't fathom, understand or relate to at all) there is absolutely no courtesy involved with the large majority of them. Surfing is for the beach and they are really hard on other boaters as well the shoreline.

Joe

x2 agreed dang nailed it all /thread

**dgscroggs** · 09-06-2018, 04:38 PM

The 100K+ wake boats that are selling like crazy (I can't fathom, understand or relate to at all) there is absolutely no courtesy involved with the large majority of them. Surfing is for the beach and they are really hard on other boaters as well the shoreline.

Joe[/QUOTE] pontoon boats don’t bother me , it’s these guys circling around in front of my dock for 30 min that gets to me when they can go another 1/4 mile down river where there’s no docks , these guys were a real class act take note of the seating arrangements

**eli** · 09-06-2018, 05:22 PM

From what I have seen in last 4 year's I cannot fathom 10 more years and what it will be like on the water its going to be real bad. Crowded dirty water

**VooDooChild 1267** · 09-06-2018, 06:05 PM

Then mix in the insane amount of people that purchased $59 plant pots/kayaks from Walmart...i watched groups of them get swamped by wake boats....on purpose.

**TooStroked** · 09-06-2018, 06:51 PM

First, let me say that the day I buy a pontoon boat, youwill be able to look back a few months prior and find that I had a stroke orsomething. I’m very happy with my Progression 22 and wouldn’t think of tradingit in for something with silly aluminum tubes underneath a square deck with a fencearound it.

Ok, now that I have that off my chest, let me remind all ofyou that I work at a fairly large marina in upstate New York that made somepretty decent money selling Fountains, Donzis and Formulas not all that longago. I’d also say that 15 years ago at our 200+ docks, you would have been hardpressed to find a pontoon boat. Today well over 50% of those same docks have pontoonboats tied up to them. We sell Bennington pontoon boats and we generally can’t getenough of them.

So why are they so popular? Well, if you have a family orlots of friends, it’s pretty hard to beat the amount of room they have foreveryone to relax and have fun. Believe it or not, screwing a 250 or 300 HPYamaha to the back of a triple tube pontoon creates what I generally call “theworld’s fastest and most comfortable living room.” (Yes, I did say that.) Andas long as the body of water you’re on doesn’t get too rough (no more than 3’waves), you can pretty comfortably run right along the top of them in anythingover 22’ long with more than 150 HP screwed to the transom. If it gets toorough though, you can pretty easily cave in the front fences and be in for acostly repair job. (Ask me how I know that.)

So as much as they might not be for the averageS&F member, they are pretty neat and very useful, so they’re here to stay.